Final Report Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile
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Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile final report prepared for Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency on behalf of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. June 17, 2011 www.camsys.com final report Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile prepared for Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency on behalf of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 9015 Mountain Ridge Drive, Suite 210 Austin, TX 78759 date June 17, 2011 Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency on behalf of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) would like to thank all those from the various local governments and many others who helped contribute either by reviewing this document or by giving input. Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency John Bridger, Executive Director Karen Rennich, Assistant Director & TPO Coordinator Strategic Long Range Planning: Melissa Taylor, Director and Patrick Hall, Sr. Transportation Planner Research and Analysis: Yuen Lee, Director and Nelson Galeano, Transportation Analyst Stakeholders Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Chattanooga & North GA Transportation Clubs Incident Management Task Force Chattanooga-Hamilton County / North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Manuel Rico, Chairperson Bob Colby, Vice Chairperson The Chattanooga-Hamilton County / North Georgia TPO Technical Coordinating Committee (TCC) and TPO Executive Board members representing the counties of Hamilton in Tennessee, and Dade, Catoosa and Walker in Georgia including their respective municipal governments within the Chattanooga-Hamilton County / North Georgia TPO Boundary. The preparation of this report has been financed in part through grant[s] from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. Department of Transportation, under the State Planning and Research Program, Section 505 [or Metropolitan Planning Program, Section 104(f)] of Title 23, U.S. Code. This report was also supported and funded in part through programs of the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The views and opinions of the authors [or agency] expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the states or U. S. Department of Transportation. ASSURANCE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA) and Chattanooga-Hamilton County / North Georgia (CHCNGA) Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) do not discriminate in their programs, activities, or employment policies and procedures against qualified individuals because of race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap. No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance (Rehabilitation Act of 1973 29 U.S.C. § 794). No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, national origin or sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance (Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, and as amended, and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 P.I. 100.259). This includes funds received through the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), or other entities. The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA) further assures that every effort will be made to ensure non-discrimination in all of its programs and activities, whether or not those programs or activities are federally funded. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. i 8071-030 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1-1 2.0 Chattanooga Freight Activity............................................................................ 2-1 2.1 Overall Commodity Flows ........................................................................ 2-1 2.2 Truck Volumes ............................................................................................ 2-4 3.0 Freight Needs and Deficiencies ....................................................................... 3-1 3.1 Truck Congestion Hotspots ....................................................................... 3-1 3.2 Through Trucks ........................................................................................... 3-4 3.3 Needs Associated with the Volkswagen Auto Plant ............................. 3-4 3.4 Other Highway Needs and Deficiencies ................................................. 3-5 3.5 Rail Needs and Deficiencies ...................................................................... 3-6 3.6 Waterway Needs ......................................................................................... 3-7 3.7 Air Cargo Needs ......................................................................................... 3-8 3.8 Multimodal/Policy Issues ......................................................................... 3-8 4.0 Planned and Programmed Freight Projects ................................................... 4-1 4.1 Underway or Complete Freight Projects ................................................. 4-1 4.2 Programmed Freight-Related Projects ..................................................... 4-2 4.3 Needs Plan/Illustrative Projects ............................................................... 4-4 4.4 Freight-Beneficial New Roadways ........................................................... 4-6 5.0 Recommendations .............................................................................................. 5-1 5.1 Highway Solutions and Projects ............................................................... 5-1 5.2 Rail Solutions and Projects ........................................................................ 5-3 5.3 Waterway Solutions and Projects ............................................................. 5-3 5.4 Air Cargo Solutions and Projects ............................................................. 5-4 5.5 Multimodal/Policy Issues ......................................................................... 5-4 5.6 Summary of Freight Solutions .................................................................. 5-4 ii Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 8071-030 Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile List of Tables Table 2.1 Top 10 Commodities ................................................................................ 2-3 Table 3.1 Summary of O-D Survey Through Truck Percentages ....................... 3-4 Table 3.2 Total Daily Truck and Rail Traffic Generated by the VW Plant ........ 3-5 Table 3.3 Top 10 Grade Crossings by Total Daily Traffic.................................... 3-7 Table 4.1 2035 Freight-Related LRTP Underway or Completed Projects ......... 4-1 Table 4.2 2035 LRTP Programmed Projects .......................................................... 4-3 Table 4.3 2035 LRTP Needs Plan/Illustrative Projects ........................................ 4-4 Table 4.4 2035 LRTP Freight-Related New Road Alignments ............................ 4-6 Table 5.1 Chattanooga Freight Project Recommendations ................................. 5-4 Table 5.2 Policy/Institutional Recommendations ................................................ 5-7 Cambridge Systematics, Inc. iii Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile List of Figures Figure 1.1 Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia TPO Region ........... 1-2 Figure 1.2 Chattanooga Region Employment and GRP by Industry Sector ...... 1-3 Figure 1.3 Chattanooga Multimodal Freight Network ......................................... 1-5 Figure 2.1 Chattanooga Freight Flows by Type of Movement ............................. 2-1 Figure 2.2 Chattanooga Freight Mode Shares ........................................................ 2-2 Figure 2.3 Top 10 Commodities by Weight ............................................................ 2-3 Figure 2.4 TDOT Truck Traffic Volumes in Chattanooga ..................................... 2-5 Figure 2.5 Chattanooga Regional Truck Route Network ...................................... 2-6 Figure 3.1 Congested Locations on Key Truck Routes in Chattanooga .............. 3-2 Figure 3.2 Future Congestion Levels on the Truck Route Network .................... 3-3 Cambridge Systematics, Inc. v Chattanooga Regional Freight Profile 1.0 Introduction This report summarizes the key findings and recommendations from the Chattanooga Regional Freight Study. The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) commissioned this study to understand the importance of freight to the regional economy, area commodity flow and freight travel patterns, and how transportation needs and deficiencies are impacting users of the regional freight transportation system.1 The study region (shown in Figure 1.1) includes Hamilton County in Tennessee and parts of Dade, Catoosa, and Walker Counties in Georgia. The Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes all four counties, has a population